Once again, it’s opening day for the Mendocino Music Festival—the 23rd season. As always, the 16,000 square foot tent has been erected on the Mendocino Headlands (you can check out some of the activity using the Mendocino Hotel Webcam), and the musicians are ready. By chance, I was up in the water tower at the Kelley House this morning, helping remove the giant American flag we put up for the Fourth of July shindig. I could hear the orchestra in their final rehearsal before tonight, sounding great!
Headline performers this year include: Maria Muldaur, Alexander Markov, The Scene, Iva Bittova with Antonin Faijt, Alex de Grassi, and the Joshua Redman Trio. The opera this year is La Boheme. The Piano Series features concerts by Paul Hersh, Gloria Cheng, and Joel Fan.
A couple of plugs for events: on Thursday the 23rd, composer Jay Sydeman will be joined by several other modern composers to show off some of their compositions. This event, called MOOT—Music of Our Time, will be in Preston Hall at 3 pm, and it promises to be quite interesting.
The closing night of the festival is the Marion James Memorial Concert, featuring the Festival Orchestra and Chorus. There are 2 pieces being performed: Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos, with pianists Carolyn Steinbuck and Susan Waterfall. Carolyn is Marion’s daughter, and she also prepared the 130-member chorus for the second piece: Mozart Requiem. I am singing in the chorus for the Requiem, and it’s going to be beautiful. If you’ve never heard the Requiem, you are in for a treat. I can tell you—the chorus is having a great time with this piece, and that will come across in the performance!
You can check out the full schedule of events on the Mendocino Music Festival Web site.
